Making Medication Affordable

Healthcare in America is Expensive.

It's a frustrating area because even your doctors don't always know what tests or medicines cost. In fact, your pharmacist can only know if your insurance will cover a medication if they try to fill the prescription first!

There are a few ways around these problems, but unfortunately there's still room for improvement. If you have suggestions, let me know by contacting me!

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Medications:

You can try to reduce the cost of your medication by checking out a website called GoodRx, or checking out their free app. This can give you an estimate of how much your medication might cost WITHOUT insurance, and give you free coupons to reduce the pricing if you were to pay out of pocket. Many people find that some of their meds are cheaper if they DON'T run them through insurance.

Another option is to use a mail-order pharmacy. You can get several benefits from using these; whether getting more organized meds sent to you, or getting your long-term medications in bulk. While obviously not helpful for antibiotics for an infection, you can get a reduction in cost for meds you'll need for a while (for example blood pressure medicine, or diabetic medication. You can call your insurance provider to ask if they have a preferred mail-order pharmacy, or even use this service to order from Canada where things are often cheaper.

Do the arbitrary drug prices make you mad? GOOD! Because your doctor is mad about that too. Go to TruthInRx.org to learn more, and to get involved in advocacy to change this!

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Healthcare:

Depending on your insurance coverage, it may be worthwhile to look into "Direct Primary Care." While not for everyone, this can bridge the gap for many people. The basic tenants of the model are that patients pay a 'membership fee' monthly, often pro-rated based on age and medical issues. This membership fee covers unlimited office visits, with many Direct Primary Care physicians being available after hours or on weekends on a one-on-one basis. These doctors have also often worked out discounts with local labs, x-ray offices, and medication distributors to get things provided at cost.

These doctors are filling a void for unavailable or unaffordable office visits, but do NOT replace having traditional insurance to cover specialists and unexpected hospitalizations. This model isn't for everyone, but it's worth considering and doing some research on your own!

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Lab Tests

For more information, take a look at the number in this New York Times Article about how drastically lab tests can change in cost between areas. Before getting labs, some people have success in calling their insurance provider and asking for deductible costs and how much lab tests are going to run them. Others have success by calling the lab first and asking their "out of pocket fees" - some people find that it's cheaper to do this than to work through a high-deductible plan.